Why is my headphone jack not working, like, at all?

[Android Central Question]

Okay so yesterday my headphones were plugged into my headphone jack but the music was playing through the speakers of my phone. I looked online and learned how to clear them out and it worked but this morning I checked again and the music was playing on the speakers once again. I tried the same thing, I turned my phone off, used a paper clip and dug in there and there was no luck, then I tried sticking tape in there but still no luck, I even tried blowing into the jack but nothing happened. I shined a flashlight in it and I can see the bottom and what looks like a darkish ring around a smaller metal circle at the bottom, I don't know if that is the lint or dirt at the bottom or it was always like that, I tried getting at it with a paper clip AND tape and there was no luck, the dark circles stayed the same... I honestly don't know what to do... I don't have a compressed air can and nothing seems to be working... Is there anything else I can do to fix this? The same methods I've used aren't working AT ALL! (Plus, all of the websites are telling me to do the same thing...)

 

[SpookDroid]

Hi there,

I'd advise against using a paper clip, you risk damaging the port further. It might be that the port is either broken or the connector is loose. When you plug in your headphones, does anything happen on your phone? Have you tried using a different pair of headphones?

If you have a newer Samsung phone, those come with an 'audio manager' when playing audio through headphones and it allows you to select whether you want the audio to come out through the speakers or the headphones (or both). If not, there are similar apps on the Play Store that can help you troubleshoot that and see if the port is the problem or it's the headphones.

When my headphone jack on a V20 started acting out because it got wet from a wet-install screen protector, I used one of those apps to use audio properly until the port dried out and it started working like normal (that's when I knew I needed waterproofing on my phones and couldn't look back haha)